26. T1000
The Three Moons Mythos, Book 1: A Queen of Light and Shadow
“John, honey, it’s late, I was beginning to worry about you. If you hurry home we can sit down and have dinner together, I’m making beef stew.”
The T1000 impersonating Janelle, Terminator 2
Da Jie spoke up, speakers buzzing and crackling.
“We go to the vehicle. NOW!”
CJ glanced over her shoulder.
“Hey chillout, lady in a jar, I got this, yeah?”
Ren Ming didn’t listen to CJ and immediately began to march over to the van. Simons saw it and moved to intercept them, fast, incredibly fast, faster than seemed possible.
CJ hopped back, she could move fast too, blocking the path to Da Jie and their ride. It all happened so quickly, bat over one shoulder, being held by the right hand but the other hand was slung low, light and ready. It was a modified Philly shell, she flicked out a rapid jab with the left. Light and probing, looking for gaps.
The Queen slipped effortlessly, loads of space, grinning the whole time. Eyes still focussed on Da Jie attempting to escape.
‘Shes fucking fast, come on, open up some space, a wrong step somewhere, I just need one opening.’
CJ kept on flicking out her jab as the team started to pile into the van, Da Jie was being placed inside, Sapphire climbed in watching nervously. Rick was still close to the action, ready to step in if needed. CJ and Cassandra.Cain() saw the space!
‘Yes that’s it! Now!’
Simons went too wide and was flat footed, Cassandra() found the moment. CJ rolled off the line spinning and coiling, a tight 540 as she grasped the bat with both hands. AR looked good, she was in the zone, first orange, into yellow and she was right about to enter the green end zone, spinning, twisting and spiralling hard.
“Fucking have it! Bitch!”
Then time stopped.
She wasn’t where she was supposed to be, the error codes flared up. Simons had stepped in tight and caught the bat, slipping and pulling it round to the side, dragging CJ in with her own momentum. She spun around him, balance broken, connected in a spiral.
Tiger paw punch plus a leverage pull went straight through the bat, shattering her precious signed Mets heirloom with a sharp crack. CJ stumbled back holding a snapped end, freed from the grab, momentum still pulling her off balance. The other end was in Simons hand for all of a fraction of a second, before he lunged forward grinning and drove it deep into CJ’s shoulder.
Before she even had time to scream his arm folded at the elbow, hands switching like a magician and an overhand elbow went in hard as a hammer, driving the splintered bat even further into CJs torso. It smashed into her like a hammer striking a nail, pinning her down to the ground. She fell screaming, blood splattered across the parking lot floor. Alerts fired up across her vision.
!Warning!
Major lacerations detected
Vital signs are dropping
Seek Medical Attention
Confirm(Hemostatic.agents) = Y/N
N
Confirm(IV.Local.anaesthetic) = Y/N
Y
50 mg IV 2% Lidocane administeredCompiler Progress 15%...
She needed to take out the bat first before she could deploy her artificial blood clotting agents. The local anesthetic would help though, not too much, just to take the edge off so she could still function.
Manga girl was down but not out.
Rick jumped in and grabbed her straight away, dragging her to the van. Simons ignored them and spun on a dime, whole body moving as one. Immediately focussed on the primary target. He advanced on Da Jie without stopping.
Dr Ren Ming had just finished carefully securing Da Jie’s cylinder with seatbelts and was about to enter the vehicle. Sapphire didn’t have time to say anything. She processed information at about three times the speed of the average human but she didn’t see it coming. Simons appeared behind the doctor, one hand on each side of her head, a quick pulse of force and he twisted her neck. CRACK. She fell to the floor. Dead on impact, spine snapped.
Da Jie had connected to the van and started it up and went to automatically close the doors. Sapphire was leaning down, trying to hold onto the body of Dr Ming as she slid limp and heavy out of the door.
“Leave her! She is dead. Hold on.”
The vehicle skidded backwards towards Rick and CJ. Da Jie fired it into full reverse, tires skidding and revs firing up. Simons turned as one, not a single moment of movement wasted, head trained on his, no her, goal. They began to stride rapidly to the new location of the van.
“Get in! NOW!” Da Jie’s tinny speakers fired off commands.
Sapphire hung out of the door and grabbed CJ, she grunted as her lover pulled her into the vehicle, still managing a smile, just about.
“Thank you lovely, tis just a scratch.”
Compiler Progress 18%...
She blew Sapphire a kiss. Blood was oozing out of her shoulder and half of a splintered bat was still firmly wedged in place as well.
Rick jumped in after and felt his back crack, not in a good way.
The vehicle kept reversing, it wasn’t that fast, Simons was still coming forward. Stride broke and changed to sprint, new athletic performance models loaded, efficient and effective.
The underground carpark gate was opening, it was slow but it was rising.
Rick looked at the gate. There isn’t enough room.
“Its going to tear the top off the fucking van Da Jie”
“Only minor damage, we need to leave, now. Risk acceptable.”
Rick looked back at the skinny matrix fanboy who was indeed a fucking t1000, running with perfect 400m sprinter form, advancing on them, still closing, perfect athletic efficiency. Face relaxed, eyes focussed aggression.
They flew backwards still in reverse, full power and there was a sickening tear at the top of the van, but Big Sis was right, they sailed out, roof scratched to shit, but didn’t slow down.
As soon as it was clear as they had made it out to the street, Simons stopped pursuit. He turned and walked off in another direction, cool, calm and no time wasted. Not even a final look.
“Hold on! Corporate security vans inbound, we aren’t safe yet.”
Da Jie span it in a tight circle, tires skidding and leaving marks. Sapphire clung on to CJ, trying to keep her stable, holding her still so the wound didn’t get worse, she could see she was in pain.
Blacked out armoured private security trucks swarmed the roads of New Wharf. They were closing the net. They needed to get out of here, away from the corporate sky city and into the real streets, the twisting maze of London.
Da Jie floored it, AI driven car being directed by her will, she had the cameras, the mics, the systems, she had prepared for such eventualities, she dated a rally driver once, well she fucked him, a great driver, a handsome Latino champion, but a quick fire in the bedroom, how disappointing. Now they all trained in haptic AR feedback systems, and they recorded everything, including the biofeedback, she had the data, several hundred thousand hours. She had loaded and ran it two weeks ago, running 10,000 simulation tracks simultaneously for a few days, she was now a better driver than he ever was, or ever possibly could be. Men are weak, the world of man is dying.
Another breaking power slide of a turn to swing tight around a corner into the wrong way up a one way system. She had hacked an Oceania spy satellite that was over this part of the planet. She had a live feed of the satellite video, she knew where every corporate vehicle was. Alongside their digital radios, car cams and AR systems she had near complete information, the game was solvable, there was an optimal solution. Her traveling salesman versus the Queen’s swarm intelligence models, the game was on.
Back in the day it was always a game to her, do your work and step back, she lost an entire startup business at one point, poor investments in the Thai property market, high risk, high reward, it did not pay off. Baba was distraught, she just started up her next project. She lost that game, but she wouldn’t lose the next. Lose a battle but keep on the war effort. That’s why she was a winner, attachments make you weak, make you unable to do what must be done. She was never afraid to take risks and do what needed to be done. She was not afraid.
The satellite imagery was being viewed by at least two minds, it was the perfect data source for this game. So they both arrived at it together, great minds thinking alike, hiding their observations from the other. The mind of the Queen used the same feed, but she was controlling the ghosts, not Mrs Pac Man. Risks and probability calculations overlaid on top of the live feed, directions given to humans, cybers and AI’s alike. Like a giant bloated spider, corpulent and in control, she plucked at the strings of her web.
It had been such a long time since she had even a draw, this was glorious, she hated losing but loved to play. She resented and hated Da Jie but couldn’t help but admire her, blood boiling but mind racing. When she finally saw that grey sack of flesh get squashed into a puddle she would be so happy, she could almost hear and feel it already, the victory would be so sweet, she didn’t lose, she always won. That’s why the princess became a queen, she would never bow again. NEVER AGAIN! She was the empress of darkness and light, all paths and probabilities folded to her will, it was only a matter of time before this brain in a jar was pleading for mercy, begging her for life, like all the others before.
The Queen reached out through the strands of her web, vibrations finding the receptive mind of this most troublesome insect, a female mantis that wouldn’t get stuck. Da Jie’s awareness expanded to hear her rivals song:
‘To you,
mortal,
I come to tell you
that here in this region,
this plain,
here in this land,
back in the era of ancient giants
and hunchbacks
when even no people such as us
had as yet ever arrived,
a very long time ago
The tentacled lord passed here,
and had with him seven jumping heads;
you could see them
quickly crossing the path
to devour you
or put evil
in your life
you could not understand
the riddle he asked.
You could not understand
the riddle he asked!’
They skidded around another corner. Sapphire and Rick were holding on for dear life. CJ was doing much better and ready to show everyone just how fucking hardcore she was.
“You can let go of me Sapphire darling. I need a moment.”
She pulled out a small iodine wound spray from her chunky bag, the project manager’s bag of holding.
Rick looked on in apprehension. He was first aid trained so he knew, you don’t pull out something that massive, she would lose a tonne of blood.
“Hey CJ you aren’t doing what I think you are doing are you?”
“Yeah I’m about to go Rambo 3 Rick, you got a problem with that?”
“Ummm yeah because that’s fucking bullshit and your going to die! I read the Reddit post on that scene; blood loss, sepsis and death CJ. Leave it in, apply pressure and get proper medical care.”
“Thanks for your advice Rick, but watch closely. My mind was connected, completely joined to one of the smartest fucking biohackers on the planet. Admittedly a fucking emotional mess, but still, I learned a few tricks. No gunpowder needed.”
CJ’s eye lit up and code flew up thick and fast, she was tweaking parameters and manually filtering the scripts, modifying it line by line so it was just right. She took a deep breath and pulled out the bat.
Blood splurted across the van. Sapphire gasped. CJ immediately sprayed the wound with iodine and gritted her teeth. A wad of blue towel was in the wound and they watched in amazement as it seemed to partly close. An artificial wound sealant leaked out from around the edge of the opening, closing it rapidly. The blood was also clotting and scabbing over almost instantly. She pulled out the towel. Blood flow decreased to that of a small cut.
“Demabond for wound closer, deployed by my blood born nanobots. Blood clotting agents harvested from my own plasma then stored in a genetically engineered biohacking organ next to my heart. Prophylactic antibiotics to prevent infection. Oh the nanobots also deal with particulate matter, breaking it down so my bloodstream can process it. Local anaesthetic kicked in already. Did I miss anything Rick?”
Compiler Progress 22%…
“Emperor be praised, CJ, you’re a fucking space marine.”
“Oh please, you couldn’t catch me dead in shoulder pads, gross. Drukhari much more my style.”
Sapphire didn’t like being left out, but she did a quick AI assisted search in her head, got some key terms and jumped right into the conversation.
“I sign up to be tied up, enslaved and dragged off to Commorragh for a lifetime of torture mistress!”
“Oh I know you do sweetie, I know. You’re the best.”
They had to take it there didn’t they, Rick, couldn’t have brought it up without it going there…
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